4 Celebrities Starring in Cubicle-Related Flicks

At first glance, office cubicles do not seem like a natural setting for a movie. They’re light on drama and atmosphere. There are few battles to the death and the love stories that unfold tend to bear more resemblance to a Match.com profile than “Dr. Zhivago.” Heck, even the weather is climate-controlled.

Still, there must be something pretty compelling about the place where most of us spend the bulk of our days. How else do you explain all the recent films that take place in cubes? Here are a few celebrities whose next movies feature cubicles.

Can a guy who got famous playing a pretty idiot (Kelso on “That 70s Show” and whatever character he’s supposed to be in those camera commercials) convincingly portray one of the computing world’s most revered geniuses? According to Grantland, he can, at least in photos. The first images from the set of Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs biopic show a sharper, more pensive Kutcher, apparently doing justice to Jobs’ famous beard.

Yes, that Alan Thicke. No longer the dad on “Growing Pains,” Thicke plays a crooked investment banker trying to pull off a student loan scam. Two recent grads — played by Michael Seater and Joe Dinicol — try to foil his evil plans. If their office is anything like the ones we’ve worked in, they can start by telling Thicke there’s cake in the break room. The bullpen will clear out so fast, it will look like there was a fire drill.

This is the second adaptation of the 1939 short story by James Thurber, which followed the imaginary adventures of Walter Mitty, an everyman who daydreams about a more exciting life. The first film starred Danny Kaye as pulp-fiction writer. This one features Ben Stiller as a photo researcher — which means many more opportunities to show our hapless hero spinning daydreams under buzzing fluorescent lights.

The latest incarnation of Superman might seem like a strange addition to this list, but hear us out: What’s Superman most famous for, besides wearing tights and saving the world? That’s right, toiling away in the anonymous cubicles of The Daily Planet. After all, what better disguise for a superhero than office drone? No word on whether or not The Daily Planet has been updated to include an online edition, a mobile version, and a bunch of blogs, but if you want to start a parody Twitter feed, now’s the time.